“Your Majesty?”

The horn of Celestia glowed a single time, indicating she was listening. Raspberry Beret was earlier than his normal daily call. If the face of the Princess could have shown any sort of emotion, she would have given him a worried look. The servant was in tune with Celestia though, he sensed she was feeling uneasy about his unscheduled vid call.

“Fear not your Majesty I bring no bad news, good news actually. A new ship of the E.T.F is ready for launch, another terraforming ship. As is customary with all launches it just requires your ah...blessing. The ship will launch tomorrow as the sun reaches the highest point in the day. Is that acceptable, your Majesty?”

The horn glowed a single time again. Raspberry Beret saw no point in asking anymore questions related to the launch. He simply said “Thank you Princess.” and shut off the screen.

Back at the docks, the E.T.F Starflier was being prepped for launch. The core was in place and fully functional, the crew was loading up the supplies needed. Final systems checks were being done throughout. The captain, a Pegasus by the name of Vector Thrust, was just on the internal vid system back to the main base facility. Seemed as good a time to test it as any.

“Celestia has given her blessing for a prompt launch tomorrow at the agreed time.” a voice at the other end of the line said. “Everything on the final checks is going to plan?” the voice asked.

Vector put a hoof to his chin and scratched it, musing on his reply. He knew they only wanted to hear one thing. “Indeed, ship seems to be as fully functional as the other on hundred and eight you’ve built. I’ll do my final personal check on the core shortly.” he said.

“Very well, your eyes only remember.”

“I am well aware.” he replied, a little ire in his voice. The broadcast shut off, Vector turned and made his way off the bridge to a lift behind him, leaving the main command area. The captain was large, but as with all E.T.F ships he had to maintain at least a walking weight. No pads allowed on any E.T.F terraformers. Ponies had to be mobile on their own.

He made sure he was the only one in the left, pulling back on a hidden control panel below the rest of the buttons to various levels. A single button with a small keypad of numbers was there. It wasn’t even marked, but he knew it went to the core. He pressed the button and keyed in the access code. As soon as he was done the lift started to move towards the centre of the ship. It was a short journey, he was only going to the middle of the vessel.

Upon stepping out of the lift he only had in front of him a small space to look in at the core. The small room the lift brought him to had some glass on the exterior so he could see inside, a small keypad and monitor in the centre. Once he stepped in, it flickered into life.

On the other end was of course, the core. Starflier seemed to be endlessly wheezing and puffing. They had only removed the tubes yesterday, but she still hadn’t recovered from the filling she had gotten. Her whole massive bloated body filled the round room that had seemed so large when she first stepped hoof inside. There was hardly an inch of space around her, her fifty thousand pounds of flab had filled most of the room, but there was still some space for her to expand. Her head lay buried deep within the round and bloated body of the Unicorn. In fact the only way the captain had any contact with her was the vid screen that was poking its way down the shaft of her neck rolls towards her head. Vector decided to speak.

“Can you hear me Starflier?”

For a moment there was no reply, just endless puffing, more wheezing. But after a minute, finally a “...Yes.” came from the lips of Unicorn.

“Good. I came to check on you. How are you holding up?” Vector asked.

More wheezing, again a wait for any sort of reply. “...Tired.” was all the reply he got.

“Mmm, normal, when a pony takes on so much weight so fast. You have a day to recover at least still. Celestia is giving us her blessing tomorrow.” he said.

There was another pause, but shorter this time. Starflier wanted to know. “Blessing?” she asked.

The captain grinned, she wasn’t privy to this information, but now she was an immobile blob able to speak to nopony else he didn’t see the harm. “One of the many reasons for the Princess’s increased mass my dear. Back when she was a regular pony, moving the sun was a hard spell to perform each day for her. As time went on we needed her to do more, it was exhausting on her and her magic. Now with her size she can continue her duty, plus perform magic beyond what even your massive size is capable of. A bigger pony means more magical prowess. Why do you think all the most powerful Unicorns in The Empire are immobile, town or city sized mountains of fat? Their magic is most useful at its most potent.” he explained. “That’s Celestia’s Blessing, tomorrow she will teleport the entire ship and its crew into orbit of Equestria. It’s the only way to get you and everypony else aboard into space.”

There was no reply, just more pants. It seemed though Starflier had understood.

“I’ll be back.” Vector said. “But mostly when we need you, I won’t be down personally, just via the screen. Oh and those tubes will return when you need more food. Don’t worry, we have you on a feeding cycle. Have to keep you nice and big for your work.” the stallion said, summoning the lift back to pick him up. “I have to complete our final checks before departure. I’ll see you later Starflier.” he said with a small amount of malice in his voice, before disappearing into the lift.

Starflier sat, encased in her fat prison. She wanted to know more, she desperately wanted to scream out. Throw her fury at the captain and the ponies that had done this to her, she was frustrated, angry, upset. But overriding all that, she was still hungry. The increased size meant she wanted to eat, her first thought actually was ‘Tell me when the tubes are coming back!’ but her panting and wheezing had prevented her from doing so, or asking or saying anything beyond single words. She couldn’t even levitate the captain towards her and keep him in place. It seemed the device attached to her horn wasn’t only an amplifier, but a dampener. Having an on and off switch to her magic when they needed it. She couldn’t even teleport herself out or bring anypony to her.

For now she could only wait to see what happened. Her mind swirled with thoughts of escape, food and other prospects she had before her. Not that she could do very much, in her utterly immobile state. She pondered her options, that was all she had right now.

The next day rolled around, Raspberry Beret returned to his Princess.

“It is time my lady, they need your powers in a few minutes.”

The single glow from the horn. Celestia began to ready herself. The spell had become child's play over the years of doing it, but she had to make sure she got everypony, with her magic and her horn gently glowing she could feel the ship in the usual dry dock they often were placed at. Ponies were scattered all over it in spots, the engine room, bridge, crew quarters and elsewhere. Then of course she came across the main mass, the core of the ship. The biggest presence of all. It was always the same, when she felt the core pony it was either sadness or anger in their hearts. This one though, it was a mixture... She had not felt that since the very first ships launched. A little unsettling. She would let Raspberry know once she had performed her duty.

Her horn glowed brighter, the spell although child's play took its toll, always a slight strain on her abilities. She felt her body convulse, sending massive ripples of wave-like crashes of fat throughout her mountainous mass. But in a blink, the entire ship was teleported from its birth on Equestria to high orbit of the planet. The Princess relaxed, letting her body settle.

“It is done, Princess?” Raspberry asked.

A single glow of the horn, followed by three short bursts. She only did that when she summoned the energy to speak beyond what was capable of saying through her horn. Raspberry nodded. “One moment my lady.” he turned the volume up on his vid screen. He always yearned to hear whatever words the Princess had to say, it was rare she spoke in a millennia. After 10 minutes of panting, wheezing, the words came forward.

“Watch….her.” was all Celestia managed, before closing her lips. Raspberry turned the volume back down and simply nodded.

“Very well your Majesty.” he said, closing off communication and getting in contact with the E.T.F headquarters. A stern looking and very plump stallion greeted his call on the other end.

“Ah...Raspberry, what can I do for you? Please thank Celestia on my behalf for another successful teleportation to orbit. The ship is making final checks ready for departure into the deeper reaches of space.”

“I will indeed, but as agreed with every vessel. Our agent is in place?” he asked.

“Of course.”

“Good, they are needed. Have them contact me once the ship departs and they get a moment to themselves.” he said.

On the other end of the screen, the stallion simply nodded and closed off the line. Raspberry Beret was curious, Celestia spoke so little so it was often difficult to discern her meaning, but working with her for so long, he had a good idea of what she was after. He would keep an eye on the E.T.F Starflier with interest. The ship and its core were certainly on his radar.